Code signing certificates range from about 50USD to Up to 400 USD per year depending on the vendor. If you are a Microsoft apps developer, you need one of the three listed below:
1. Verisign
2. Thawte
3. Comodo
Among the above 3, Comodo offers the cheapest signing certificate. There are several resellers for Comodo. Among these, the following resellers appear to be cheapest:
1. https://author.tucows.com: You need to sign-in to buy the certificate (free sign-up). The prices are as below:
1 year Comodo Code Signing Certificate: $75.00
2 year Comodo Code Signing Certificate: $140.00 = 70/yr
3 year Comodo Code Signing Certificate: $195.00 = 65/yr
Note: We tried buying for tucows, but for some reason, we could not proceed to the payment section. Emails to tucows either went un-answered or poorly replied. Problem never got resolved.
2. http://codesigning.ksoftware.net/
1 Year - $95.00/yr
2 Year - $87.50/yr
3 Year - $81.66/yr
4 Year - $77.50/yr
5 Year - $73.00/yr
Help:
http://certhelp.ksoftware.net/support/home
They also have a GUI based software, known as ksign that can be used to sign the code. Check it here:
http://support.ksoftware.net/support/solutions/articles/17170-how-do-i-use-ksign-to-digitally-sign-files-
KSoftware claims that ksign is the only software required to sign the code and a publisher doesn't need signcode.exe, signtool.exe or any SDK from Microsoft. It comes with everything you need in one ~3MB download. It is possible to sign multiple softwares in batch processing!!
You can still use signtoo.exe or signcode.exe, and forget about ksign. It is not compulsory to use ksign to sign your code. Its only a free tool that is made available by K Software for code signing.
An email sent to KSoftware was answered promply within 24 hours and they appear to be very responsive.
3. http://www.lindersoft.com/order_codesigning.htm
1 year - US$79 +25 towards initial subscription = 104/yr
2 year - US$143 + 25 towards initial subscription = 84/yr
3 year - US$200 + 25 towards initial subscription = 75/yr
It appears that they don't have 4 or 5 yr plans. Not sure if one MUST subscribe to their resource center. It costs additional USD25. Checkout the email from Lindersoft:
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------->
Thank you for contacting Lindersoft Sales.
We provide our SetupBuilder customers with access to highly discounted
original Comodo code-signing certificates (e.g. 3yrs for $200 instead of
$500). A valid SetupBuilder subscription -OR- a Premium Membership ($25.00)
is required.
If you don't need SetupBuilder (this is an installation authoring system for
Windows applications), you can simply buy a Premium Membership for $25.00
and then buy the discounted certificates. You can download the required
tools from Microsoft to code-sign your application file(s).
So a 3 year certificate would cost $200 + $25 = $225 in this case.
<=====================================================
4. https://codesigncert.com/
1 Year for $80.00
2 Year for $140.00 = 70/yr
3 Year for $203.00 = 67.7/yr
https://codesigncert.com/comodocodesigning
They seem to accept only Paypal, and whois record is not clear. Suggest to veryify the reviews else where before buying from codesigncert.com
5. https://www.gogetssl.com/code-signing-certificates/comodo-codesigning-ssl/
1 Year for $83.85
2 Year for $146.75 (75.4/yr)
3 Year for $209.65 (69.7/yr)
Unlimited free re-issues.
gogetssl.com is a group website of http://enversgroup.com/. Check them out. They appear to be genuine and cheap.
The website gogetssl.com is in the strategic partners list given below:
https://www.comodo.com/partners/strategic-partners.php
Note: They appear to be not very responsive. A couple of emails sent to their sales department were not answered yet. They have not given any phone number on their website. Suggest that you verify with them before placing an order.
6. https://www.thesslstore.com/comodo/codesigning.aspx
1 Year for $99
2 Year for $174 = 87/yr
3 Year for $248 = 82.7/yr
7. CheapSSL: https://cheapsslsecurity.com/comodo/codesigningcertificate.html Comodo reseller
1 Year duration. : $85.00
2 Year duration : $150.00 (75/yr)
3 year duration: $219.00 (73/yr)
The website thesslstore.com is in the strategic partners list given below:
https://www.comodo.com/partners/strategic-partners.php
Finally, Comodo charges the following rates if you want to buy directly from Comodo
1 Yr: 179.00 (with 5% discount)
2 Yr: 339.00 (169.50/yr) (with 5% discount)
3 yr: 500.85 (166.95/yr) (with 7% discount)
As can be seen above, the rates are very high if you buy from Comodo directly and is therefore not advisable.
Duration: It is recommended to buy for 3 yrs or more because it appears that you need to re-sign the code if you renewed after the expiry. That means, all your softwares (edes, ocx, dlls, etc.) need to be re-signed. However, check with the certificate issuer. Some offer managed certificates, which I understand, relieves a developer from re-signing all the codes.
Another tip: If you are just a Windows applications developer and not involved in signing sys files or any kernel mode files, you may go with SHA-2. Microsoft is deprecating SHA-1 from 1-1-2016 (yes, 1st Jan 2016).
Avoid the following:
1. Verisigh - very expensive
2. Thawte - very expensive
However, if you are involved in any partnerships with Microsoft programs, they may insist on buying from one of the above without leaving any other option to the developer.
3. Directly buying from Comodo - It is expenside if you buy directly.
4. Godaddy - It is expensive.
Note: There are some vendors that offer Code signing certificate for as less as USD 50 per year (check startssl). However, they are not recommended if you are a serious Windows applications developer. Microsoft recognizes only the above mentioned 3 certificate vendors as on date.
Disclaimer: It's my own opinion and I'm not working for or involved with any of the mentioned organizations.
Hope this helps,
Vijay.